Love

Gaspar Noé

Year

2015

Runtime

134 min

Language

English, French

Country

France

Principal Cast

Karl Glusman, Aomi Muyock, Klara Kristin

"I want to make movies of blood, cum,
and tears."

While these words are spoken by a student
filmmaker in Gaspar Noé's Love, they
might as well come straight from the French
auteur himself. Noé has always worn his
heart on his celluloid; in his latest sensation,
he reveals more of himself than ever before.
And yes, it's in 3D.

Employing his trademark fractured narrative,
Noé opens with an intimate scene of
lovemaking between American film student
Murphy (Karl Glusman) and the enchanting
artist Electra (Aomi Muyock) — and
suddenly cuts to two years later as Murphy
wakes next to a different woman, Omi (Klara
Kristin). Omi is the mother of Murphy's
child, and Electra seems a distant memory.
But when he receives a call from Electra's
mother, searching for her missing daughter,
Murphy is led to fantasize about what could
have been.

Though it wouldn't be a Noé film without
shocking and explicit moments (3D ejaculation,
anyone?), these give way to a revealing
examination of the nature of love and its
physical expression — to which Noé adds
many elements of autobiography. While
Murphy is a clear stand-in for the director,
there are also characters named Gaspar and
Noé (the auteur himself playing the latter,
Murphy's older competition for Electra).
Full of references to Noé's cinematic influences,
from the Malick-like narration to the
Godardian intertitles, and populated with
his avatars, Love feels more than any of Noé's
other films like a window into his own mind.

Recalling classics such as Last Tango in
Paris and recent works such as Nymph()maniac, Love brings a rare honesty to its
portrayal of love and sex. This is Noé's most
fearless and provocative film to date.